Pramod Bhagat nominated for Para Badminton Player of Year

India’s Tokyo Paralympics gold medal champion Pramod Bhagat was named among six shuttlers for the Male Para Badminton Player of the Year by the sport’s world body however none of his comrades included in the able-bodied awards’ categories..

Defending world-champion, who had won a memorable gold medal in the men’s singles SL3 class in the Tokyo Olympics in September, was likewise named alongside Manoj Sarkar for the recently presented Para Badminton Pair of the Year, with five different candidates.

Manoj Sarkar had backed a bronze in the men’s singles SL3 class in the Tokyo Olympics.

The 33-year-old Bhagat, who had contracted polio when he was four years of age, gotten the game after watching his neighbors play. At first, he went up against able-bodies prior to getting into serious para badminton in 2006.

Bhagat is additionally current world number one and Asian boss in SL3. In SL3 class, competitors with lower appendage disability contend.

There was no Indian in the list of candidates in the able-bodied classes.

Because of COVID-19 pandemic, the qualification period was stretched out to cover the 2020 and 2021 seasons (November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2021).

The champs will be declared during the Bali Leg of the HSBC BWF World Tour in Indonesia in November-December.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) said two new honor classes were presented – Pair of the Year and Para Badminton Pair of the Year.

“The BWF Awards Commission also wished to make special mention of the extraordinary journey of Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon across four Olympic Games and his stunning performances at Tokyo 2020 which took him to the semifinals,” the BWF said.